1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to detecting the presence of target analytes, and more particularly to an integrated magnetic field generation and detection platform.
2. Description of Related Art
As baby-boomers in developed nations retire and as the ranks of new healthcare recipients in developing nations swell, new medical systems are needed to weather the storm of rising healthcare costs. In particular, Point-of-Care (POC) technologies have the potential to keep costs at bay by enabling affordable preventative diagnostics and personal chronic disease monitoring. Many of these POC technologies use detection schemes that rely on the specific marking of target analyte with labels, such as catalytic enzymes, optical markers or magnetic beads. The latter are very useful as labels for bio-assay applications because (a) cells exhibit few if any magnetic properties, b) signals from magnetic beads are stable with time, (c) magnetic detection functions regardless of the opacity of the sample, and (d) magnetic labeling provides added functionality such as magnetic filtration and manipulation.